OREANDA-NEWS. VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation and Airbus signed an agreement for the development of rough machining of Titanium Forgings for the A350 XWB programme at VSMPO facilities. The first deliveries under the contract are planned to start in 2015.

The agreement on rough machining, first ever signed between the companies, marks a new milestone in Airbus and VSMPO's collaboration and is fully in line with the companies' intention to develop higher added value activities and expand the product portfolio.

"This agreement is not only a logical continuation of a twenty years of cooperation between our companies but also a starting point for development of a partnership on a totally new level", noted Mikhail Voevodin, VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation CEO. "In its deliveries to Airbus, our Corporation move from simple titanium semi-finished products to advanced machined forgings and we are proud of our achievements. Additionally we highly appreciate our partnership with Airbus and are genuinely interested in further development towards more added value products as well as the extension of the range of products supplied for different projects of our valued partner."

"After 20 years of successful cooperation with VSMPO-AVISMA, we continuously look at the opportunities to expand the perimeter of our partnership in a win-win approach. We are convinced that focusing on added value activities through Vertical Integration will support optimization regarding usage of raw materials in the machining process. The agreement on rough machining is a starting point for future fruitful collaboration in this domain", explained Klaus Richter, Executive Vice President Procurement, Airbus and Airbus Group.

Since the 1990s, VSMPO-AVISMA has become a major supplier for Airbus and Airbus Group for titanium needs in semi-finished products or titanium forgings. VSMPO-AVISMA is currently supplying titanium forgings for all Airbus programmes, including the A320neo, the A350 XWB and the A380.